When the two of them looked at the young banker, she gave two thumbs up.
“If you don’t leave by yourself, she hits the alarm and this entire block will be locked down with cops faster than you can say Chop Suey.”
She shook her head. “That’s Japanese.”
“Whatever. You get the point.”
“Give me the encryption codes,” she said, her voice determined.
Cliff hesitated, unsure what to do or how far to push her. She would kill him, he was sure of that much. Finally, he said, “The encryption scheme is on the DVD. Open it when prompted with the password ‘Felatio.’”
“You wish. I will check it on my laptop. It doesn’t open and I shoot you.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
She got up from her chair, leaned down toward him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I faked all orgasms with you,” she whispered. “Your penis is too small.” She smiled and started to leave. Then she put her arm around his neck and spoke softly into his ear. “You cross me and I kill anyone you ever know. Understand?”
He smiled at her. “Nice doin’ business with you.”
She left him there, his face sweating as if he had just run a marathon.
25
They had nowhere to go. Yet, Jake and Su were on the run back the same way they had come across the ridge, following their own tracks through the snow. But that was futile, Jake knew. Eventually they would be caught.
When they came across a small stream that was open from hot springs, Jake stopped Su by grabbing her arm.
“We can’t do this,” Jake said, out of breath. “This way.” He pulled her down the narrow stream.
Running as carefully as possible through the darkness and unsure footing, they soon came to a small waterfall. They would have to cross around the outside on tall rocks.
Although it was quite dark, there was an occasional break where the moon would poke out from behind clouds, and the wind seemed to pick up with each step they took down the mountain.
They skirted around the rocks, which were icy and wet near the falls, and then Su lost her footing. As she started to fall, Jake grabbed her hand and the two of them, with heavy backpacks, hurtled down the rocks.
It was not a huge drop to the first time they hit, but then they continued to roll, bouncing off rocks and crashing through the small trees between them, until they hit an opening. Then they started to slide down the embankment of snow, sliding through trees whipping them in their face, until their final plunge into the icy water.
If the water had been deeper, they might have ended up at the bottom of the river, never to rise again. But the small pool they hit was only a couple of feet deep.
Jake struggled to his feet, disoriented. He saw Su face down in the pool.
He slung her around and dragged her to the embankment. He gave her mouth-to-mouth until she released some water and started coughing.
Pulling out a pen light, he looked her over for injuries. She had a few scratches on her face, but nothing serious. He moved his hands over her body, trying to check for broken bones.
Her breathing improved and she shook her head. “Usually I demand dinner before we get to this point,” she said.
“Very funny. Any pain?”
“How about a loss of dignity?” She sat up, struggling against the backpack.
“That only counts if one falls and not the other.” He ran his hands down each arm until he got to her left wrist.
“Oww.”
Slowly, Jake worked her sleeve up and saw the black and blue and the swelling.
“Broken?” she asked.
“Afraid so.” He put her sleeve down. Then he glanced up the mountain. “We’ve gotta get going.”
He pulled her to her feet and then they both realized the real problem. They were wet from the waist up, and the backpacks had taken on water, which made them heavier. Worse yet, the cold wind would have them lose heat as fast as their bodies produced it.
Together they worked their way down the mountain stream, which gained width with their progress. The only thing that saved them from hypothermia was their constant movement.
Once the river hit a small step, they stopped to catch their breath.
“I don’t hear them behind us,” Su said, her breathing labored and her good hand gently rubbing the broken wrist.
Jake didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled out the light and dug into his backpack. He found his phone and tried to pick up a signal.
Nothing.
“Damn it,” he said.
Su gasped, her eyes wide as she stared at Jake.
“What?”
She said something in Chinese as she moved closer, her good hand moving to the left side of Jake’s face. “You have a huge gash here,” she said.
He pulled off his gloves and felt at his head, finding crusted blood and eventually a raised area at his left temple, which was still sticky with oozing blood. He winced in pain as he touched the cut area.
“Great.”
Digging into his backpack he found a small Ziploc bag with a few items inside. It held small bandages, band-aids and tape. But first he needed something else. There. He found a small tube of super glue.
“Could you help me?” he asked her. “Squeeze some of this on the wound.”
“That’s glue,” she protested.
“Just do it.”
She shrugged and then did what he asked with her good hand. “You crazy.”
Next he pulled out a couple of butterfly bandages and had her pull the wound together.
“That should work,” he said, putting everything back into his pack. “Let’s go.”
“I don’t think they’re following us,” she said.
“Maybe not. But it doesn’t matter. If we don’t get out of these clothes, we’ll be stiff as a board by morning.”
She agreed with her silent nod.
They moved downstream a little slower now, spending more time on the bank than in the water.
Although his clothes were heavy with the stream water, Jake still had not caught a chill. Perhaps it was the constant movement. Maybe it was the clothes he had gotten from Su’s uncle. Either way, he was thankful for that one luxury. Now if only he could get the information, the photos he had taken, uploaded on the cell phone. That might have to wait until they reached the valley. Something in the mountains was blocking the signal.
After a while the terrain started to get less steep, and the river changed from a gurgling churn to a wider ripple. He checked his watch. The sun would be starting to come up within an hour or so.
But one question kept seeping up to the front of his mind. Why had the soldiers stopped following them?
He got his answer in a few minutes, and it made Jake and Su stop dead in their tracks alongside the river.
The familiar sound of a helicopter rose up from the valley below.
Now came the chill.
26
By the time Cliff Johansen felt safe to exit the bank, his breathing had finally started to get back to normal. Instead of going out the back door to the parking lot, he exited the front door to the downtown sidewalk.
Just as he reached the sidewalk, a hand grasped his neck and shoved him forward against a brown Ford Taurus.
Instinctively, his hands caught his fall on the top of the car.
“Get in,” came a harsh woman’s voice.
He tried to turn around, when an elbow smashed him in the mouth, disorienting him and bringing tears to his eyes.
All he remembered next was being shoved into the back seat, a person jumping in next to him, and the car pulling away from the curb.
“You got her?” the woman’s voice asked the driver.
“Three blocks up she took a left,” the man said.
Cliff rubbed the tears from his eyes and then tried to stop his bleeding lip. He shook his head to get his vision.